The Danish parliament (Folketinget) had a debate on No New Coal Mines on Thursday after seven members of the Red-Green Alliance proposed that Denmark should join the initiative. All nine major parties joined the debate. The move, led by MP Maria Reumert Gjerding, was welcomed and supported by three other parties; The Alternative, Danish Social Liberal Party and Socialist People’s Party.

The small island nation of Kiribati has in a letter to the government asked Sweden to back the global initiative which would ban all new coal mines. Now we have Sweden’s response: The Social Democrats and The Green Party want to push development banks into adopting policies which prevent them from investing in fossil fuels.

The NNCM movement is progressing in Sweden. On Wednesday, Swedish news paper interviewed Richard Denniss and on Thursday, Jonas Sjöstedt, the leader of the Left Party, asked Prime Minister Stefan Löfven if he would support Kiribati during question time in parliament.

World renowned scientists and economists back Kiribati President’s call for No New Coal Mines in open letters published in Saturday’sGuardian UK and this month’s global edition of New Scientist magazine.

Former NASA Goddard Institute Director Dr. James E. Hansen, Dr. David Suzuki, Nobel Laureate in economics Professor Kenneth Arrow, Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, and Ian Dunlop have joined 52 scientists, economists and other experts in calling for a moratorium on new coal mines ahead of the Paris Climate Summit.

View the full page letter in the New Scientist here, and in the Guardian UK here or scroll down to see the names of signatories below.

Sweden has long been a leader on climate change. With Pacific Island countries facing extreme risks from climate change calling for help, will Sweden support their proposal for a moratorium on new coal mines?

It's crunch time. The Paris COP21 is only weeks away. And if Australia succeeds in its plans to double its coal exports, the world's plans to tackle global warming will fail.

We're excited to announce that The Australia Institute invited His Excellency Anote Tong, President of Kiribati to make a stop-over in Australia en-route to Paris COP21 to make a final call for a global moratorium on new coal mines, and he's coming next week!

This week 61 eminent Australians including three former Australians of the Year, two Nobel Prize winners, and Australian Rugby player David Pocock signed an open letter to President Hollande and World Leaders, supporting President Tong of Kiribati's call for a global moratorium on new coal mines.